Because beauty should be fun!

Author: daniellerosenalouise

Yep, it’s another Lush bath bomb review! I got a couple of bombs last week and decided to use my Blackberry one first. I’ve waxed lyrical about Lush products a number of times before, so let’s jump straight in, shall we?

The Blackberry bomb is one of Lush’s oldest, created waaaay back in 1989! This bomb is older than me! Its most obvious scent is, of course, blackberries, but it also has hints of bergamot and frankincense. It’s a simple formula, but it’s one that works and works well, which has made it go down as one of Lush’s most popular bombs to date. It has a gorgeous pale purple colour with BOMB cut into the front, and it’s gratifyingly large. I love me some melts, but they just don’t go the distance like these bombs do. I think that you could easily cut this in half to stretch it to two baths, and possibly even three!

So the bomb obviously turned my water purple. A lovely dark purple! I didn’t get any photos of the completed water as I totally forgot, but it didn’t change colour from the above pictures. The bath smelt wonderful, the water was soft and silky, it was just heaven. But then I got out of the bath and drained the water.

Purple. Purple everywhere.

I had the biggest, most purple ring right around my bathtub. Splashes of water had stained the top of the bath and the floor. My skin wasn’t purple, but I reckon if I had been in there much longer I would have been! It took rubber gloves, cleaning agent, and a scrub brush to get the purple off, and that’s not the most relaxing activity to do after a soak.

And then my skin started itching. Even with moisturiser, my skin was red, itchy, flaky, and downright maddening. I’m not sure what was in this bomb that irritated me so much, as it’s got a very small ingredients list, so perhaps it was the quantities of the oils, or the fragrance. Whatever it was, ouch!

So I was disappointed by this bomb. It’s pretty, it smells gorgeous, but in the end it just left me itchy and my bathroom purple. Oh, and it had a ‘BANG’ sticker in the middle of it, which freaked me out because I thought there was a plaster in the bath!

Has anyone else used this bomb? Have you had a reaction to it, or did it work out well for you? Let me know in the comments!

Perfume is one of my many beauty obsessions. I’d collect hundreds of them if I could! I love how scents can trigger feelings and memories, all with a spritz. Just the smell of a Cool Charm body spray takes me back to primary school, back when we wore tattoo choker necklaces and layered up with armfuls of jelly bangles. Christina Aguilera’s perfume reminds me of when I was 17, sneaking into clubs with a fake ID and my best girl friends. I don’t think they make it anymore, but I have an empty pot of The Body Shop’s Guarana Lip Butter, and the smell of the container takes me straight back to 2008! And I vivdly remember being so worried about my fifth form exams that I studied with peppermint oil dabbed on my wrists, and took a vial of the stuff into my exams in an effort to jog my memory (of course in the end I did fine).

I’ve got lots of perfumes. Generally I lean toward floral scents, but I also like perfumes with a twist, ones with something unusual in them that set them apart from the pack. I have three favourites, and each is quite different from the others. But I’d better stop reminiscing and let the perfumes speak for themselves. Here are my top three…

#1. Jean Paul Gaultier: Ma Dame

This perfume is sadly discontinued (aaargh!) but you can pick up bottles of it pretty easily. My Farmers still stocks it. It is my absolute favourite scent of all time, and I’m yet to find anything that is similar. I’ll be honest and admit that it was the advert with Agyness Deyn chopping off a long platnium wig and hacking at her pants with scissors that attracted me at first: I was going through a major Agyness Deyn crush at the time and had already plastered my bedroom walls with her face before I had even got a whiff of the perfume…

But the perfume itself is glorious too. It’s a fizzy, neon, loud and proud scent which reminds me of a pink highlighter mixed with mandarin and sorbet. It’s so bright, so sexily unusual, that I feel like a better version of myself when I wear it. The top note is the most noticeable, of course, being a bright splash of orange (mandarin to my nose). But it’s the middle and bottom notes that draw me in: the middle notes are rose and grenadine, and the bottom notes are musk and cedar. This is a hit and miss scent for a lot of people, but I get lots of compliments when I wear it, so it must go well with my skin chemistry. It’s very strong, though, so beware of over-spraying! I wore it almost exclusively in my first year at university, and it still reminds my partner of that year when I wear it.

The bottle is gorgeous as well, which is a rectangle with a woman’s figure set in relief, which is a play on Gaultier’s Classique perfumes bottle. The glass has a hint of pink in it, which gives the bottle an ombre effect. I have a couple of the empties scattered around my house as decoration! My only issue is that it sprays a lot of perfume out, which means that even with frugal use the bottle runs out quickly.

#2. Prada: Candy

Of course I love this one! If I had to describe Candy in one word, it would be sugar. It’s the type of scent that I always wanted when I was a teenager, because then, and only then, would I finally be mature. I lusted after it for many years but never worked up the courage to buy it, as it’s pretty darn expensive. When I finally got it: phwoar! I’ll never be without it again.

Scent-wise, this isn’t to everyone’s taste. If you’re into light, fresh scents, then this will assault your nostrils in the worst possible way. But to me it’s absolutely delicious: the top note is white musk, the middle is benzoin, and the bottom is chewy, glorious caramel. It’s full, it’s sexy, it’s sweet without being cloying. Some people have complained that it doesn’t last long, but for me it lasts for a good number of hours before it tails off. It doesn’t turn powdery like a lot of perfumes, which I put down to the caramel base note and my skin chemistry.

The bottle is the only downside to this perfume. It’s in a yellow/gold bottle with a pink label and a black and gold umbrella cap. Personally, I think it’s quite old-fashioned and unattractive. It doesn’t scream ‘luxury’ to me. It gives out just the right amount of perfume per use, which is handy, considering how pricey it is.

#3: Marc Jacobs: Daisy

This is just such a bright, fresh scent! It screams summer to me, in the most simple and pretty way possible. It’s light and gleeful without being immature. I have to say that I was seduced by the bottle originally, as I normally wouldn’t go for something called Daisy, but I’m happy that I did try it. It’s proof that sometimes judging a book by its cover can work in your favour!

Daisy, despite its name, doesn’t smell like daisies. It belongs in the floral-wood category, which is why it is set slightly apart from standard, run of the mill floral fragrances. The top notes are fruity, with strawberry, violet leaf, and grapefruit taking the lead, giving the first burst of the perfume its bright, sunny signature. The middle notes are the floral superstars, with gardenia, jasmine, and violet blended to make a sheer and balanced scent. The bottom notes of vanilla, musk, and white woods are delicate but strong enough to give the perfume depth. My only gripe with this perfume is that it doesn’t last long on me. At most, I get two or three hours worth of wear before it disappears. This would usually be enough to knock a perfume right off my favourites list, but I love it so much that I can put up with its limited life span.

Whoever designed the bottle for this perfume is an artistic genius. It’s simple, it’s pretty, and it matches the perfume perfectly. The plastic daisies at the top are gorgeous, while the pale yellow of the bottle echoes the yellow of the flower. I haven’t used my bottle up yet, but you can be sure that I’ll be displaying this one! On a side note, don’t you hate how you have to keep perfumes in the dark? I keep mine in my wardrobe to make the perfumes last as long as they can, but all I want to do is display them in a gorgeous glass cake stand, something like this picture from Uptown Fashion Magazine:

*Dreamy sigh*

I have a lot more perfumes that I love, but I seem to have a bad habit of falling in love with ones that get discontinued, like DKNY’s Red Delicious. I love that perfume like a mother loves her child! I also have to confess a weakness for cheap and cheerful perfumes, like those from Mariah Carey and Britney Spears’ lines. They’re not as good as the higher end, luxurious perfumes, not by a long shot, but my nose isn’t so refined that it can’t enjoy a good burst of synthetic fizz from time to time. 😛

What are your favourite perfumes? Did you agree with any on my list? Let me know in the comments!

Everyone who knows me knows how much I love lipsticks. I absolutely adore them. I have far too many than is healthy! There’s something so fun about them: they come in all sorts of colours, all sorts of finishes, all sorts of scents… Not to mention the impossibly cute packaging of some brands! I also like how easy they are to change up when you get bored: while eyes, hair, and foundation finishes take effort and time to change, lipstick can be quickly wiped off and reapplied. I think it’s obvious that I have a bit of an obsession…

Unfortunately, I suffer from chronically dry lips. I have a very dry skin type as it is, and lipsticks just don’t agree with me if I don’t put the effort in. I also have mild eczema, which likes to come to the party on my face pretty regularly! So over the last few years I’ve spent a good deal of time trying to figure out a lip regime that actually works for me and allows me to keep wearing the lipsticks I love without wrecking my mouth. Sometimes I’ve found what I thought was my holy grail lip product, only to find that after a few months, it stops working.

This regime that I follow now I’ve been using for over a year, and it’s still working, which makes me pretty happy. 🙂 It doesn’t stop the excema, but it does prevent my lips forming those nasty cracks and flaky patches that used to plague me. What I love about this regime is that it isn’t too expensive, and the products are easy to find at your supermarket or mall. Perhaps you could try it and see how it works for you?

So without further ado, here it is…

During the day, I use the Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream Nourishing Lip Balm, which is a broad spectrum SPF 20 lip cream. My current one is in a pot, but it usually comes in a tube:

I put this on whenever I feel dry. I’ll sometimes put it on top of my lipstick if it’s a matte formulation, but it tends to break up the lip colour, so if I’m wearing lipstick and feeling dry I’ll usually wipe it off, apply the lip cream, blot, and then apply the lipstick again. It sounds arduous, but with lips like mine even creamy lipsticks are a bit of a hazard. If I just want to add some sheen to my lipstick, I just dab a bit on the middle of my bottom lip, and it has a nice subtle effect without breaking up the colour. The balm has a chemical strawberry scent and to be honest isn’t the best tasting, but it’s nice and thick and actually soothes my lips, rather than just adding moisture. It lasts for a long time, so when I’m out in the sun or wind I feel like my lips are actually protected, rather than just moisturised. I feel like it improves my lip texture as well.

During the night, I use the Chap Stick Night Repair Lip Treatment which is part of Chap Stick’s Day and Night package. Although I don’t use the Day Lip Cream as it doesn’t work very well for me, it works for my partner, so when I buy the package I give the Day Cream to them. It’s in a neat little purple tube:

The benefits of applying targeted products at night have been well documented: while you sleep, skin renewal is faster, your skin is more receptive to active ingredients, and your temperature is slightly higher, which allows products to absorb better. I slather this on thickly before bed, and when I wake up in the morning, my lips feel nice and moisturised! I like the texture in particular, which is watery and silky. It soaks into the lips quite rapidly, which allows me to put on a few layers in a short amount of time. When I don’t use this at night, I definitely notice the difference the next morning. This is also useful to layer under a lipstick, since it soaks in fast and smoothes out any flaky patches.

I exfoliate my lips whenever they feel like they need it, which tends to be one or two times a week. I use the Lush Lip Scrub. I like the Bubblegum flavour the most, but at the moment I’m using the Popcorn flavour:

This is mostly sugar, flavouring, and salt, but boy is it delicious! It’s a gentle scrub that you rub on with your finger or an old toothbrush and then lick or rub off. I like it because it’s so gentle, although I admit that the flavour is a big drawcard. It tastes slightly salty, sort of caramel-y, kind of sweet and sour… Yum! This is a good product for people with dry lips, because a lot of lip exfoliators are very harsh, and we only need the flakes removed, not our lips!

The other problem with having dry, flaky skin is that our lip colours tend to ‘bleed’. This is most noticeable when I use dark, vampy colours, which is so annoying as it ruins that sharp, crisp line I want! So before I apply lipstick, I use the OCC Anti-Feathered Clear Primer Pencil.

This is a very creamy, clear pencil that I run around the outside of my lip line before I apply lipstick. It stops bleeding before it even happens, and I’ve found that it actually helps the moisture level of the skin around my mouth. I reapply it maybe once a day if I’m wearing a dark lippy: never if I’m wearing a light colour. I really love this pencil and have replaced it a number of times! The only downside is that the pencil itself doesn’t last very long: I have to sharpen it after every use as it wears right down.

So that’s my lip routine! By following this, I am able to wear the lipsticks I want without wrecking my mouth or having the colour come up patchy and horrible. Let me know what you do for your lips in the comments!

Bonjour everyone!
Phew, summer has really hit, hasn’t it? In New Zealand it’s in full swing, and I’m already reliant on my desk fan. Summer isn’t really for me – I’m more of an autumn/winter girl – but it’s nice to wear all my pretty dresses and sandals, as well as not having to wrap myself in layers of blankets! Plus everyone is just so much happier in the summer. It must be all that vitamin D!

I have very pale skin which I like to joke gets moon burn, so the sun just isn’t my friend, sadly. I use a lot of sunblock and sit in the shade as much as possible, but sunblock, sweat, dust, and makeup can really clog your pores. And that obviously leads to acne. It’s just one of those summer things! So when I started my Shiseido Ibuki regime a couple of months ago (see my previous blog post), I also bought myself a tube of Shiseido Pureness Deep Cleansing Foam in preparation for summer.

This product is from the Pureness range, which is a range targeted at people with more oily, acne-prone skin. According to Shiseido, it is meant to ‘lift away pore-clogging impurities, makeup, and oil that can lead to imperfections’: basically, it gives your skin a deep deep cleanse. It is a blue/white cream with blue granules in it, which foams up beautifully in your hand. It’s actually quite fun to use! The bubbles are silky and fine, and you only need a tiny blob of product to cover your face. The granules have a very gentle exfoliating effect, although sometimes the product that comes out will only have a few granules. So I wouldn’t consider this product an exfoliant, just a cleaner with some exfoliating properties. It has a very chemical smell that I can’t place, which is a downside, and makes me think that it wouldn’t be a good option for someone with sensitive skin.

So how did it work for me?

I used this once a week, focusing on my forehead, nose, and chin/mouth area, and avoiding my dry cheeks and neck. For those parts of my face, I used my Shiseido Ibuki Gentle Cleanser.

I have small hands so this looks like I used a lot of product, but this seriously was a teeny tiny blob. It foamed up not quite as much as the Ibuki cleanser, but there were still lots of bubbles, and I was easily able to cover my whole face.

The results after a couple of months using this were a bit of a mixed bag. It definitely gave me a deep clean: my skin felt squeaky clean after each wash! When I had acne this product did help to clear it up a little, although it wasn’t a huge help. However, I just felt that for my skin, which is normal to dry, it stripped me of too much moisture. It also stung a bit when I had a flare up of eczema around my mouth. Since I still have almost all of the tube left, I think I’ll use it when I’m feeling particularly clogged or have a bad breakout, but I don’t think that I’ll continue to use it weekly.

Has anyone else used this product before? Let me know in the comments!

I have struggled with bad skin for many years now. When I hit puberty my face turned into an oil slick almost overnight, and no product seemed to clear up the vast amounts of acne that plagued my face. Around when I turned 18, however, all the oil just seemed to stop, and my skin became incredibly dry, while the acne remained! I also developed mild excema, which tends to erupt around my mouth whenever I’m stressed. I have tried numerous products, higher and lower end, but I still struggle with it today. However, I remain hopeful!

Keeping that in mind, I have been using Shiseido’s Ibuki range for the last three months, and thought that I’d give my honest opinion, coming from a dry, acne-prone perspective.

Shiseido was formed in Tokyo, Japan, in 1872 by Arinobu Fukuhara. Since its founding, Shiseido has always stood by three ideals: offering a pure, holistic experience of beauty; using cutting edge science to provide the very best products on the market; and Omotenashi, or the spirit of hospitality that comes from thoughtfulness and dedication to building relationships.

The Ibuki range has been advertised as the range that will give you ‘ready for anything’ skin. It promises to build skin’s resistance to UV rays and provide skin with long-lasting moisture to protect it from dryness and daily stress. By returning skin to its optimal, super-hydrated state, Ibuki claims that skin will then be able to maintain its full, healthy, youthful look.

There are a number of steps in the regime. I chose the ones that best suited me: the Gentle Cleanser, Softening Concentrate, Refining Moisturiser, and the Refining Enriched Moisturiser. I used the Pureness Deep Cleansing Foam once a week for a deep clean,the Ultimune Power Infusing Concentrate for a serum, and the Pureness Blemish Clearing Gel on my acne, all of which I will review in separate posts.

So here we go! I’ll review each Ibuki product step by step, and then give an overview at the end.

Shiseido Ibuki Gentle Cleanser

I used the Gentle Cleanser morning and night, using the Cleansing Massage Brush (reviewed below). It comes in a handy squeeze bottle, which is fine for the bathroom. This cleanser foams up beautifully with only a tiny blob of product, with fine and lush bubbles. It has a very silky feel, and once washed off, my skin feels clean and smooth. It’s quite fun to use, particularly with the brush! It has the same floral scent that the entire Ibuki range shares, but in the cleanser it is quite delicate. I do find that I have to cleanse my face right before I leave the shower, as it does dry out my skin a bit, and my face can get a bit tight if I faff around doing other things before I moisturise. This product is aimed at people with normal to dry skin, so just keep that in mind if your skin tends to fall more on the dry side!

Shiseido Ibuki Softening Concentrate

This is the star of the whole show! Regular skincare routines include toners after cleansing: Shiseido has developed the softener as an alternative, which helps to prep skin for moisturiser. It works by softening the top layer of the skin to allow subsequent products to better penetrate into the skin. It is meant to be applied with a cotton pad, although you can use your fingers in a pinch. It comes in a handy pump bottle, which I like as it feels more hygenic. It has a very watery, slippery texture, and two or three pumps will cover your entire face and neck. The scent, like in the cleanser, is not overly strong, and although it does have alcohol in it, it does not sting the skin. This really made me feel like my face was absorbing more of my moisturiser! When I don’t use it, I have to use more layers of moisturiser just to feel comfortable! I really love this product. My skin just feels more receptive, more… Open? That’s a funny mental image! 😛

Shiseido Ibuki Refining Moisturiser

This moisturiser claims to do a whole host of things: renew the skin’s surface, reduce pores, heal and prevent blemishes and skin roughness, improve skin texture, and provide superior hydration. That’s a big claim! It comes in the same pump bottle as the Softener, which is hygenic and just nice for consistency’s sake. I like that it has SPF, although it is quite low (SPF 15). It feels more like a lotion or emulsion than a traditional moisturiser, which I thought was quite unusual when I first started using it. The milky, runny texture feels a touch too sheer for my skin type, although it is good for the day. The scent is strongest in this moisturiser (the scent is strong with this one…), which while floral, borders on the chemical. I have to apply a few layers of this to feel comfortable, which has made me go through the product a bit faster than I would have liked. This is probably my least favourite of the line, just because it doesn’t offer the moisture that I need. But I think it would be perfect for someone with normal skin.

Shiseido Ibuki Refining Moisturiser Enriched

I see this as the night time version of the Refining Moisturiser: it is heavier and richer than its relative, and takes a little longer to fully absorb. Shiseido claims that it intensively corrects the appearance of pores, blemishes, and roughness, improves the skin’s texture, and provides superior hydration: all the same as the normal Refining Moisturiser, the only difference being ‘intensively’! It comes in a large pot with a small spatula. I’m really not a fan of this. I don’t think it’s as hygenic as the pump bottles, and even though the spatula means you don’t have to dip your fingers in there, there’s no good way to store the spatula itself. So it just sits in my medicine cabinet with all my other stuff, probably collecting dust and germs when I’m not using it. I’m not scared of germs, but with acne you need to be careful to avoid spreading them around, lest you wake up with acne in a new spot! Although it’s heavy, it doesn’t leave an oily residue like you might expect. Once it settles in, it leaves my skin feeling smooth and plump. This is my favourite moisturiser of the two, although I do think it’s a bit too heavy for day time use.

Shiseido Cleansing Massage Brush

This brush is sooooo soft. Seriously, it feels like the bristles are made of silk! There are little rubber bristles interspersed with the normal bristles, which help to massage your face while you cleanse. I genuinely think that this cleans the gunk out of my pores way better than my hands ever could, as well as having a very gentle exfoliating effect. It also makes product go a lot further: I only use the tiniest blob of cleanser with this and I get a whole handful of bubbles!

Personally, while I enjoyed using the products, I did not notice much difference in my skin. My pores are less visible and my texture has improved, but my acne is still as it was before, and my pimples hang around for just as long. I also didn’t notice any difference in my fine lines, which you would think a product that emphasises its hydrating qualities would help with. However, I will be repurchasing the softener, as I found that it really helped my moisturiser to penetrate into my skin. I ran out of it before I ran out of the other products, and really noticed the difference!

Overall, this range is a good, basic line. I think it would be best suited to someone with normal to dry skin, but not super dry skin like mine. Obviously this is not a suitable product for people with sensitive skin either, as the chemical scent will just irritate you beyond belief. It does do its job, by cleansing and moisturising the face, but I think that it would better suit a person with no real issues with their skin and is just looking for a simple range to maintain rather than treat.

I hope you all enjoyed this post! I will follow this up with reviews of the other Shiseido products I have been using. Has anyone been using this line or other lines from Shiseido? Let me know in the comments what you thought!

It’s summer in New Zealand at the moment and I love having cool baths at the end of the day to wash away all the dust. And what better way to do that than to use a Lush bath bomb? I waste a lot of my life in baths with Lush bath bombs… But is it really a waste when they’re so pretty and relaxing?

I picked up a Fizzbanger at my store during the Boxing Day sale, and finally got to use it last night after one monster of a day!

There’s something so nice about Lush in general. I think it’s the simple packaging that lets the yummy smells out! You get to sniff what you’re about to use, and the wrapping just makes you feel all ethical and eco-conscious. I spend far too much money in there. Remember: if you buy many of their products in pots, clean and keep them, and when you have five you can swap them in store for a free face mask!

But I digress.

This is the bomb itself. It’s a big, yellow ball, and pretty hefty. Fizzbanger is an unassuming bomb, but like so many things, it’s what’s inside that counts. And the scent? To die for. It shares its scent with the Gorilla perfume Love, which I haven’t tried before. It reminds me of a toffee apple: warm and cinnamon-y with apple and a hint of lemon. It’s really delicious, and I’m considering picking up the perfume when I’m next in the store.

As you can see, Fizzbanger looks yellow at first, but then it opens up and leaves beautiful swirls of blue and green in the water! My bath ended up green, which went rather well with the toffee apple scent. It didn’t leave any residue in the tub when I drained the water, which was nice. It’s usually the pinks and purples that stain my bath.

It says on the Lush website that it has popping candy in it, but to be honest I didn’t notice them at all. No popping, nothing. Perhaps I’m going deaf? It also says on the website that there is meant to be a piece of paper with the word ‘BANG’ on it in the centre, but this was mysteriously absent. Perhaps they don’t do this with the New Zealand stock? Personally I don’t mind, as pieces of paper in the bath remind me of plasters in the swimming pool. Erk!

The water felt nice and silky! My legs were dry afterwards, though, so I did need to put on some moisturiser, and my elbows were mildly irritated. To be honest, most bath products do this to me anyway, so I wasn’t too bothered, but I thought I’d include this just as a small word of caution for anyone who has very sensitive skin.

Overall, I give Fizzbanger a 7/10. I took off some points for the way it reacted with my skin, but overall I was really happy with the bomb. I felt much better after my cool bath with this baby!

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I LOVE bright colours. The brighter, the better, in my opinion. And what’s more fun than bright makeup? Absolutely nothing! So it’s no surprise that I am in love with Lime Crime lipsticks at the moment.

For those of you who haven’t heard of the brand before, Lime Crime is a US-based makeup brand owned and run by Doe Deere. It has eyeliners, lip glosses, eye shadows, and glitter pigments, but the lipsticks are the real stars of the show. In a range of eye-popping shades, they are pretty much the bomb! They are matte, opaque, generally very creamy, and come in super-cute packaging.

I’ve had a couple of the lipsticks for awhile now, but the other day I heard the terrible news that LC has ceased all supply to New Zealand and Australia! For now we aren’t sure why, but once the stores that sell it run out of their current stock, the only way to get hold of any of LC’s products is to buy directly from their website. Now this isn’t fun when you live so far away from the US, as shipping costs an arm and a leg! So I decided to go on a wee spending spree while I could still buy from NZ suppliers, and came away with four yummy new lippies (and a much lighter wallet)!

The new ones I bought are:
Geradium
No She Didn’t
Airborne Unicorn
Serpentina

So I thought, why not take some swatches and photos of my new goodies so my lovely readers can see what they look like?

I have some eczema building up around my mouth at the moment, so my face is pretty much bare in these photos, as foundation + my eczema = a lumpy flaky mess. At least you get to see what the colours look like on average skin! Because not many people have the time to wear foundation every day! 😛

I’d like to add first that this is the first time I’ve photographed lipsticks with the plan to publish them, so sorry about the amateur look! Any suggestions would be wonderful. ❤

Ahhhh, here they are! Here’s a closer look at the two types of boxes:

This is the standard box, which is the same purple as the tubes themselves, with LC’s signature unicorn on the front. I didn’t get a picture of the inside, but it was lime green, which was a cute touch.

This is the second box, which carries the limited edition lipsticks that came out for LC’s birthday release. It is a holographic silver, which you can sort of see in the picture, with a small unicorn and the words ‘Lime Crime 6th Anniversary’ on it.

These came out of the boxes, looking all purple and pretty! One design has a full size unicorn, while the other design has two unicorns back to back. I personally like the second design, as it still looks cute, but looks a bit more grown up than the full sized unicorn. I like cutesy designs anyway, but I think that for someone who is used to the classic black designs of most other lipstick brands (eg. MAC), this might be a bit full on for them! The tubes seem sturdy to me, although I have read about some people’s tubes cracking, and I think that the designs might rub off if you let them roll around in your handbag for too long.

Lime Crime Lipstick: Geradium

Geradium is a coral pink, but with a difference: it’s neon. So neon that it doesn’t really look like any other pink I’ve seen. Like all of Lime Crime’s lipsticks, it has a distinctive candy scent that makes me want to eat it…

You might notice that the colour is a bit muted on my lips. I’m not sure why this is, as other pictures online of this shade are much brighter, so I might put this one down to my skin chemistry. It’s still a gorgeous pink that really brightens up my complexion! A lot of pinks tend to lean towards the fuchsia end of the spectrum at the moment, so this lippy makes me very happy. The only downside to it is that it is quite chalky. These lipsticks are matte, which means that they are naturally more drying than others, but this one in particular was difficult to get smooth and even on my lips. I found that applying a bottom layer with a lip brush and then a top layer straight from the bullet gave the best results, so make of that what you will. It lasts a good amount of time, although I found that it bled a little if I didn’t apply a lip liner (I use OCC’s Anti-Feathered Clear Primer Pencil). I’d give this lippy 7/10.

Lime Crime Lipstick: No She Didn’t

No She Didn’t is blue. Bright blue. In your face blue! This is my favourite of all my LC lipsticks. It’s absolutely stunning! I love how light the blue is: on the rare occasion that I’ve seen a blue lippy, it’s usually a very dark shade. This colour reminds me of a cloudless sky in the middle of summer…

BOOM! This colour isn’t for everyone, and to be honest I got more than a few weird looks in the supermarket, but I’m so in love with it that I’ve worn it everywhere this past week. In natural light it looks a bit lighter than this, more of a baby blue than anything else. It is the creamiest of the four, and I could apply it straight from the bullet with no issues. If you want to wear an out there colour but your lips just aren’t in good shape, this is a good one to put on. Make the most of your bad lip day! 😛 It has a bit of a sheen, although it’s still definitely matte. This just won’t budge, even with no lip liner. I personally have a lot of trouble with colours bleeding out on my cupid’s bow, but this colour just doesn’t move. It also lasts through eating and drinking, although there is some fade. I even kissed my partner on the cheek, and I still had lots of colour left! Although their cheek ended up a bit blue… Woops! This is a definite 10/10 for me!

Lime Crime Lipstick: Airborne Unicorn

Airborne Unicorn is a candy/lavender/violet purple that kind of defies description! I’m on a purple lipstick buzz at the moment and have far too many of them, but this is a pretty unique shade.

And we have lift off… Airborne Unicorn is a definitely cooler toned purple, and strangely it makes my teeth look whiter. (On a side note, has anyone noticed that one of my front teeth is longer than the other one? I think it’s kinda cute!) The colour is really beautiful on my pale skin, but I’ve seen some gorgeous pictures of people with dark skin where the colour just popped! I see a definite grey undertone in the colour against my skin, which I personally like and think adds to its uniqueness, but be warned if you have my skin tone and you’re looking for something a bit more purple. It has quite a wet look, which is surprising considering that it is marketed as a matte lipstick, but I think this has a plus side in that it’s quite easy to apply. I didn’t use a lip brush to put this on, and with a lip liner it had good staying power. It’s not as creamy as No She Didn’t, but compared to something like Poisonberry (which I also have and will make a post about sometime soon), it’s pretty moisturising. I’d give this a 9/10.

Lime Crime Lipstick: Serpentina

Serpentina is a dark, metallic, forest green that to me just screams witchy fun! It has a definite shimmer to it, but it’s not too frosted to be unwearable.

As you can see, I had a bit of trouble with keeping the line sharp on my bottom lip. My lips were pretty dry after all of my photos, so my eczema was irritated by this application. The colour is deep and vampy, and while it’s pretty shocking against my pale skin, I really like it. I think it would be great for Halloween, although knowing me I’ll wear it somewhere like the library… It’s sheerer than the others and needed a few layers to fully build up the colour, which is a downside as it uses more lipstick and the sheerer application looks a bit weak. It’s not too drying, but good lord does it bleed! Even with a lip liner it bled straight away. Perhaps this was my irritated skin? Obviously darker colours take more upkeep, but this is pretty difficult. Taking this into account, I give this lippy a 5/10.

So that’s my Lime Crime haul! I hope you all liked it! I am so in love with these colours, and while LC lippies might take a bit more work than others, they are definitely worth the effort. I’ll post a review of my other lipsticks sometime soon. 🙂